File photo of Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand© AFP
World number one Magnus Carlsen on Monday criticised senior FIDE officials, including its deputy president Viswanathan Anand, for mishandling the dress code violation issue, calling them “not grown-ups” and stating that the Indian was “not ready for the job.” A couple of days after being disqualified from the Rapid event at the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship for refusing to change into formal trousers, Carlsen was confirmed for the Blitz event following FIDE’s decision to allow players to compete in jeans.
Describing the decision to disqualify him as “draconian,” the Norwegian called the officials “robots” who are not capable of making independent decisions.
“Well, first of all, let’s go back to a couple of days ago. I did have some choice words for FIDE in my interview with you. And I would say that it was a bit imprecise. I definitely mean it when it comes to certain people in FIDE. No question about it,” the Norwegian told ‘Take Take Take, an app he is co-promoting.
“I think the situation was badly mishandled on their side. And I was about to basically book my plane tickets and get out of here. My father said that we should maybe wait until the morning to make a decision to speak to the FIDE president, Arkady Dvorkovich, whom we have a good relationship with.
“Him actually being asleep when this happened meant there were no grown-ups in FIDE. You can argue whether I am or not. But there was nobody even slightly willing to have a conversation.” The five-time world champion was fined USD 200 for wearing jeans, which was “explicitly prohibited” under the original tournament regulations. The Norwegian was also disqualified by chief arbiter Alex Holowczak after he refused to change his attire ahead of the ninth round.
“We had long conversations w
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